


A Dog's Life

by houdini74



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, and puppies!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 19:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18268358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houdini74/pseuds/houdini74
Summary: David rescues a stray puppy.





	A Dog's Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is for everyone who really thinks that David and Patrick need a dog in their life.

At first glance when David came into the store, Patrick thought that he was just wearing a particularly fuzzy white sweater. Wait, he thought to himself, does that sweater have ears? As he looked closer, he could see that what he’d mistaken for a fashion choice was actually a medium-sized white puppy that David was holding in his arms.

“David?” he asked, not entirely sure what to say. Had David adopted a puppy without talking to him? He loved dogs, but it seemed like a big step that they probably should have talked about.

“It was just running down the middle of the road,” David panted. “I couldn’t let it get hit by a car.” As he spoke, the puppy wagged its fluffy white tail and tried to lick David’s face.

“No! You stop that!” David exclaimed. The puppy’s tail wagged harder. Patrick chuckled.

“It looks like you have a new friend.”

“What should I do now?” David asked a little helplessly, he was trying to restrain the now squirming puppy while holding it away from his face. From what Patrick could see, the dog was winning both battles easily.

“OK, let me see,” Patrick took the puppy from David’s arms, laughing as it immediately turned its attention, and its tongue, to his face. It was bigger than he had initially thought, about the size of a beagle. Whatever its parentage had been, it had clearly included something very fluffy and something with very short legs. It was white all over, with pointy ears and the only black was on its dark eyes and nose. 

“Ew, ew, oh my god!” David was plucking at the front of his black sweater which was now covered in a layer of white dog hair. David shook his finger in the puppy’s face.

“Bad dog!” In response, the puppy licked his finger. “Ugh!”

Laughing at David was not helping his ability to control the dog, which was now struggling in his arms, eager to get down to explore the store. 

“Grab that box from yesterday’s shipment?” he asked David, who was still trying and failing to rid his sweater of the white fur. David headed to the storage room, continuing to pick at his clothes. He scowled at the puppy on his way by.

David came back with the large box that their most recent order of potted plants had come in. It was about two feet square at the base, with sides that were 18 inches tall. Ducking away from the dog’s exhubriant tongue, Patrick put the puppy into the box. Immediately, it tried to climb the sides, before sitting cutely in the center and barking at him.

“What do we do now?” David asked, a note of desperation in his voice.

“We?” Patrick asked, amused. “I’m not the one bringing home stray dogs.”

“Okay, but…” David trailed off, clearly completely out of his depth. Patrick finally took pity on him.

“We could call Ted,” he suggested. 

Ted agreed to stop by after his surgeries were finished. The puppy, finally exhausted from its busy day, had fallen fast asleep in the middle of the box.

Patrick looked at David, who was staring at the dog with a complicated look on his face.

“So, I’m going to guess that you probably didn’t have pets growing up?” Patrick asked.

“You will not be shocked to learn that is, in fact, correct. Alexis tried to bring home a kitten once, but it went to live on a farm.” David stated with complete sincerity. Patrick looked at him quizzically, not entirely sure what the fate of the kitten had been. He decided not to ask.

“We had a dog when I was a kid. Tiger. He was a black lab.”

“You had a dog named Tiger?” David looked even more confused.

“That’s right.” Patrick laughed at the look on David’s face. “He was named for Tiger Williams, my dad’s favorite hockey player.”

“Okay, we are not naming this dog after a hockey player!” David stopped. “I mean, if we were naming it...which we’re obviously not, because we’re obviously not keeping it.”

“Obviously.”

The bell over the door rang, the sound woke the puppy who scrambled to its feet and bounced eagerly against the side of the box as Ted came into the store.

“Oh thank god!” David exclaimed.

Ted picked up the puppy and gave it a quick examination.

“It’s a girl, probably about six months old. Where did you find her?”

“In the street,” David gestured to the front of the store. 

“Hmm, well you might be able to find the owner with some posters, but lots of times people dump their unwanted pets here.”

“Isn’t that a service that you provide? Can’t you just put it in a cage with all your other dogs until somebody wants it?” David demanded.

“Normally, I would take her, but we’ve had lots of strays in this month and the clinic is full. It would be great if you could look after her, at least for the next week or so.” Ted replied.

“The next week!”

“David, it’s fine,” Patrick said. “She can stay at my place at night and I’ll bring her here during the day.”

He turned to Ted. “Do you at least have a kennel we could use?”

“Yeah, sure. I put a few things in the car on my way out the door.”

David huffed at Ted’s premeditation. The puppy was whining at the corner of the box and Ted handed Patrick a collar and leash. “She probably needs to go outside.”

They closed the store after Ted left and Patrick put the box of puppy supplies into the back seat his car. In addition to the collar and leash, Ted had provided a set of dog dishes, a bag of puppy food and some chew toys. As Patrick loaded the puppy, now installed in a proper dog crate, into his car, David stood by the passenger door, wringing his hands. Patrick closed the car door and came to stand in front of David.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Yes. It’s just...I don’t know anything about dogs or...keeping things alive. What if something goes wrong?”

“I promise I won’t leave you alone with her,” Patrick said with a smirk. He leaned over to kiss David on the cheek. 

“Are you staying over tonight?”

“A puppy’s not going to stop me,” David muttered as he got into the car and settled into his seat as the dog barked at him from the back seat.

“Quiet!” David demanded.

At work the next morning, Patrick watched David as he printed off posters for the puppy. Her first night in Patrick’s apartment had gone better than he’d hoped. After letting her out to explore and play, she’d returned to the kennel and slept for most of the evening. 

“How many of those are you printing?” he asked David, who was collecting a stack of paper from the printer.

“I just want to be sure that she gets found as quickly as possible,” David replied as he headed out the door to put up the posters around the neighborhood.

Once David had left, Patrick opened the kennel to let the puppy out to explore the store.

“Don’t tell David,” he said as the puppy sniffed her way around the middle display area.

***

It had been three days since David had found the puppy and they had settled into a bit of a routine. Every morning, Patrick got up early to take her outside, before slipping back into bed for an extra hour of sleep. They’d all have breakfast, including the puppy, before heading to the store for the day. Patrick found if he could take her for a long walk at lunchtime, she would sleep most of the afternoon in her kennel. In the evening, he let her out to play in his apartment while they made supper or watched a movie.

He was pleasantly surprised at how smart she was, she had already learned to sit for treats and he thought that she knew what “Come Here” meant, even if she didn’t always listen.

He would be sorry to see her go, he thought. He was enjoying having a dog again, he hadn’t been able to have a pet since Tiger died when he was in college. But, David didn’t seem to be convinced that a dog was a good idea.

“What do you want for lunch?” he asked as he prepared to head over to the cafe.

“Wait. You promised you wouldn’t leave me alone with her!” Patrick looked at the puppy who was fast asleep in her kennel.

“I think you’ll be okay for five minutes.” 

The cafe was busy and it was closer to 20 minutes before he could head back to the store. As he came up to the door he could see David crouched down in front of the counter. Worried that something actually had gone wrong, he opened the door to see David rubbing the puppy’s tummy, her tail wagging furiously. 

At the sound of the bell, David leapt to his feet, a guilty look on his face.

“I thought she might be lonely...because you were gone for so long.”

“Mmm hmm.” He put their lunch on the counter and wrapped his arms around David’s waist. “Are you sure that you weren’t the one who missed me?”

“Remind me what I might have missed?” David replied. Patrick slid his hands under David’s sweater, smiling as David tried to hide his reaction as he ran his fingers along the edge of David’s jeans. He pulled David closer and kiss him softly before nipping at his lower lip. David’s lips parted and Patrick kissed him deeply. He pulled back to kiss along David’s jaw when David yelped and pulled away. Patrick laughed as he saw that the puppy had stuck her cold nose into the ripped knee of David’s jeans. 

“Damn dog,” David muttered, but he was smiling.

The phone rang as they were having lunch. David left the back room to answer it and Patrick took the opportunity to feed scraps from his sandwich to the puppy. David had made his feelings about sharing food with animals very clear on the first day.

“Don’t tell David,” he said.

David came back into the room, his brow was furrowed and lips pursed. “That was Twyla’s cousin, Sarah. She thinks the dog might be hers.”

“Oh.” Even though he’d known that this was the most likely outcome, he found he was sad to have to say goodbye to the puppy. Maybe they could get a different dog at some point, he thought.

“It’s probably for the best,” David said, but he didn’t sound very certain.

When Sarah arrived about an hour later, the puppy was sleeping in her kennel. She peered through the wire mesh of the kennel door.

“I’m not sure, can you bring it out?” Patrick’s heart leapt a little. Wouldn’t you recognize your dog right away, he thought?

When he opened the door the puppy eagerly came out of her kennel.

“That’s not my dog!” Sarah exclaimed, as though it was their fault for not having the right dog. “My dog has spots and he’s taller than this dog.”

“And your dog is also a ‘he’?” Patrick said. “So definitely not the same dog, then.”

“Maybe read the poster next time,” David said sarcastically as Sarah was leaving.

As they packed up to head home for the night, Patrick took the puppy outside to pee. When he came back into the store, he saw that David had already put all of the dog’s things into the car. 

“I’ll take her,” David said, holding his hand out for the leash. He got into the passenger seat of the car and the puppy jumped on his lap.

“Who are you and what have you done with David Rose?” Patrick teased.

As usual, they let the puppy play in the apartment while they had supper. They settled onto the couch afterwards, watching her chew on one of the toys Ted had provided. Patrick laid his head on David’s shoulder as David put his arm around him. 

“I’m glad she wasn’t Sarah’s dog,” he said eventually. 

“Me too. Can you imagine belonging to someone who can’t even read a poster?” David replied, still outraged.

David put his hand on the back of Patrick’s neck and titled his head so that he could kiss him. Patrick returned his kiss eagerly, sliding his hand under David’s sweater and along his stomach, he felt David’s stomach muscles contract as he found the spot where David was ticklish. In retaliation, David nipped the edge of his jaw, before kissing the sensitive spot behind Patrick’s ear. 

“David...wait…” he whispered.

“What do you mean, wait?” David replied. “You haven’t said wait to me since our second date.” 

“Mmm,” he had to tear his thoughts away from David in order to remember why he had thought they should stop. 

“It’s too quiet,” he said. He looked over to where the puppy had been chewing on her toy. The toy sat on the edge of the rug, but the dog was nowhere to be seen.

He sat up and looked around the apartment. The puppy was lying by the front door, something black between her paws. She wagged her tail enthusiastically as Patrick approached and retrieved David’s shoe.

“David?” Patrick said apprehensively, holding out the shoe, now decorated with a number of tiny holes.

“Ah!” David exclaimed, clutching the shoe to his chest. At his feet, the puppy looked up at him happily, her tail wagging slowly. 

“Bad dog!” Ears drooping, the puppy put her head on her paws and gave David a sad look. Patrick tried not to laugh as David stared at the dog. David grabbed his other shoe from the mat by the door and put both shoes on top of Patrick’s dresser. 

“At least she has good taste,” he muttered, but he couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth.

***

They were eating breakfast the next morning when David looked over at him.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said.

“Is this about that soap-making class? Because I don’t think we have the space to do that at the store.” Patrick replied.

“No, I’ve been thinking that having a dog that matches my personal color scheme is an opportunity that’s not going to come along every day.”

“Are you saying that you think we should keep the dog?” Patrick replied, amazed by what he was hearing.

“I mean, maybe? If you do? She’d have to live here with you, I don’t think they allow dogs at the motel.”

“I am definitely okay with that,” Patrick replied, leaning across the small table to kiss David on the cheek.

“We’ll need to come up with a good name,” David continued.

“How about Spot?” Patrick suggested with a grin.

“The perfect name for a dog with no actual spots.”

“Lady?”

“No dog of mine is going to have anything to do with any tramps, thank you.”

“Lucky? Because she’s lucky you found her.” David rolled his eyes.

“Champ?”

“Princess?”

“Stop. If you don’t take this seriously, she’ll never have a name.” Patrick grinned, but he took a minute to actually think about names. After a moment, he had an idea that he thought David might like.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“Mariah.”


End file.
